Code for Popular Breath Test Machine Revealed

Radley Balko | September 5, 2007

Under orders from the New Jersey State Supreme court, the Draeger company was forced to turn over the source code for its AlcoTest 7110 breath tester, used to determine if motorists are driving drunk. Manufacturers of the devices have been refuses for years to turn over source code, saying it's proprietary. Consequently, many judges have been tossing DUI convictions, correctly determining that if a machine is going to determine guilt or innocence in these cases, a defendant has the right to investigate the methods, algorithms, and accuracy of the machines.

DUI attorney Lawrence Taylor looks at some of the more interesting findings in one tech company's analysis of the AlcoTest 7110 code.